Cabinet support member



Sept. 10, 1968 c. F. STUTE 3,400,847

CABINET SUPPORT MEMBER Filed April 21, 1967 IN VEN TOR. Car/ton F Stu ta United States Patent 3,400,847 CABINET SUPPORT MEMBER Carlton F. Stute, Riverdale, Ill., assignor to Admiral Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 21, 1967, Ser. No. 632,695 3 Claims. (Cl. 21769) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A molded plastic corner bracket for supporting the intersection of a pair of cabinet walls. The plastic bracket includes a plurality of grooves which receive conventional furniture glue for establishing a glue struture for resisting movement.

This invention relates in general to cabinet construction and in particular to corner support brackets for use with cabinets having walls fabricated of wood or similar porous material.

In conventional wood cabinet construction, hardwood gluing blocks in the shape of right triangles are often utilized at the wall intersections. These gluing blocks, commonly referred to as corner brackets, are secured to the interior of the cabinet at the perpendicular intersection of any two cabinet walls, although because of their cost, their use may be reserved for the intersections of the cabinet side walls with the top and bottom Walls.

The purposes of the corner brackets are two-fold. Primarily they maintain the cabinet square, that is, they insure that the cabinet is assembled with each of the side walls perpendicular to the top and bottom walls thereby preventing the cabinet from becoming distorted during or after assembly. Secondarily, the corner brackets provide supplementary support for the wall intersections, thus assisting the glue or fasteners joining the side walls to the top and bottom walls.

As mentioned above, corner brackets are generally fabricated of hardwood cut in the shape of right triangles. Holes for receipt of threaded fasteners are drilled through the bracket, from the hypotenuse to and through each wall forming the right angle. The brackets are generally glued into the cabinet with common furniture glue and are positioned with the walls forming the right angle par allel and contiguous to the interior of the two walls form ing the corner intersection. Of course, furniture glue is most effective when used with porous material, thus hardwood blocks used in combination with porous cabinet walls offer an ideal environment.

As the result of an unsatisfactory situation in the procurement of hardwood corner brackets, an attempt was made to fabricate substitute brackets of plastic, such as high impact polystyrene. The initial plastic corner brackets were fabricated with smooth surfaces, including those surfaces which were to be glued to the cabinet walls. When used with conventional furniture glue, tests revealed that the plastic brackets did not bond to the wall as well as the hardwood brackets. The problem was discovered to lie in the combination of conventional furniture glue and the nonporous medium of the plastic corner bracket. While conventional furniture glue adheres very well to the porous cabinet wall, it does not bond adequately to the smooth, nonporous surface of the plastic bracket.

One solution to this problem is to use a special glue which adheres to the interior cabinet walls and also to the smooth gluing surface of the plastic bracket. Unfortunately, this approach is undesirable since such special glue is relatively expensive and its use would result in the inconvenience of handling two different glues during cabinet manufacture-a conventional furniture glue for securing the side walls to the top and bottom walls, and a special glue for gluing the corner brackets.

This invention obviates many of the difficulties previously encountered in attempting to substitute molded plastic corner brackets for conventional hardwood brackets by providing a plurality of grooves: and lands on the gluing surfaces of the molded brackets. When used with a conventional furniture glue, the grooves form a matrix for retaining the glue while it solidifies. Upon solidification, the glue, which adheres extremely well to the porous cabinet wall, provides an interfering structure for coop eration with the lands. Hence, in spite of the difficulty which may be experienced with the glue bonding to the plastic corner bracket, the interfering glue structure cooperating with the bracket lands resist movement of the bracket parallel to the cabinet wall, thereby maintaining the desirable perpendicularity of the wall intersections. Preferably, a simple threaded fastener is used to maintain the gluing surface in firm contact with the cabinet wall.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a corner bracket fabricated of nonporous material for use in cabinet construction with conventional furniture glue.

An additional object of this invention is to provide a non-porous corner bracket for use in the construction of cabinets having porous walls, wherein in the event conventional furniture glue does not properly adhere to said bracket, said bracket nevertheless will adequately fulfill its support function.

An advantage of this invention lies in the capability of a glued corner bracket to Which the glue does not properly bond, to retain a substantial amount of its support function.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparet upon an examination of the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a conventional cabinet wherein corner brackets utilizing the invention are secured adjacent the rear intersections of the cabinet side walls and the top and bottom walls.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a molded plastic corner bracket and a segment of its adjacent cabinet wall intersection having a cooperating grid structure bonded thereto. The bracket is slightly rotated to more clearly show the gluing surfaces.

FIG. 3 is an elevation view taken along line 33 of FIG. 1 showing a corner bracket of the invention mounted adjacent the intersection of the right side and top cabinet walls.

Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown, for purposes of description only, a cabinet suitablefor enclosing the operating components of a television receiver. The cabinet, referred to by reference numeral 8, comprises side walls 10 and 12, a top wall 14, and a bottom wall 16. An escutcheon 18 is provided adjacent the front of the television cabinet to support a television picture tube, not shown. Right angle corner brackets 20, molded of high impact polystyrene, are secured adjacent the rear intersections of each of the side walls with the top and bottom walls. These corner brackets insure the assembly of a cabinet with square corners. Without such right angle brackets, it is very easy to assemble and glue a cabinet together where the final product assumes a parallelogram configuration. Obviously, this is an undesirable situation. While it is well-known to use right angle corner brackets to prevent the parallelogram problem, the invention con- 3 templates molded plastic brackets rather than the previously used hardwood brackets.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawing, it can seen that each corner bracket 20 is fabricated in the shape of a right triangle and includes a pair of gluing surfaces 22 and 24 intersecting at right angles. A rib 26 at the hypotenuse of the right triangle, along with other structural bracing, 27 and 29, provides an integral bracket with rigid gluing surfaces.

Each gluing surface includes a plurality of parallel longitudinal and parallel transverse grooves 28 and 30, respectively, which are arranged perpendicular to each other. The grooves define a plurality of lands 32 having sides 34 preferably extending as nearly perpendicular to the gluing surfaces as the draft of the mold in which the bracket is fabricated will allow. Apertures 36 and 38 are provided for threaded fasteners during molding of the bracket. The center line of each aperture is perpendicular to the gluing surface through which it passes.

Each corner bracket is fabricated by molding it of high impact polystyrene which is essentially a nonporous material. The nonporous properties of the bracket limit the adherence of conventional furniture glue thereto, although these furniture glues bond very well to porous materials such as the cabinet walls.

In assembling a cabinet in which a corner bracket as described above is utilized, a liberal bed of glue 39 is deposited on the gluing surfaces. The bracket is then placed in the proper position at the desired intersection of two cabinet walls and it is slightly Wiggled or moved back and forth to work the glue into the grooves 28 and 30 and around the lands 32. While the bracket is held firmly against the cabinet walls, threaded fasteners 40 and 42 are preferably inserted through apertures 36 and 38 in the corner bracket and driven into the respective walls. Each of the other brackets to be used are mounted in a similar manner after which the cabinet is set aside and the glue allowed to solidify.

After the glue solidifies, if one of the corner brackets were removed from the intersection to which it is secured, a raised grid-like structure 43 (best seen in FIG. 2) would be revealed. This grid structure comprises the glue deposited between the bracket gluing surface and the cabinet wall. The glue is molded into the illustrated structure by being captivated in the longitudinal and transverse grooves of the corner bracket. The raised grid structure rests on a solid glue base 48 which is tightly bonded to the cabinet wall, since the porous cabinet wall is an excellent recipient of conventional furniture glue.

As explained hereinbefore, conventional furniture glue does not bond well to nonporous materials. Consequently, should the bracket separate from the glue, adequate support is nevertheless provided by the grid structure interfering with the lands of the gluing surface. It can be seen from the drawing that cooperation between the grid structure and the lands will prevent movement of each gluing surface parallel to its respective cabinet wall. This is true so long as the gluing surface is maintained in firm contact with the wall. This firm contact is provided by the threaded fasteners 38 and 42. While each fastener preferably holds its gluing surface in firm contact with the adjacent wall, should one of the fasteners be stripped during assembly, the remaining fastener will function to maintain both surfaces secure.

Since the corner brackets described herein overcome the problem of conventional furniture glue adhering thereto, it is easily recognized that they resist compression most eifectively. That is, a bracket glued at the intersection of two walls most effectively resists that deformation of the intersection which will result in a reduction of its interior angle. Upon such attempted deformation, assuming the glued intersection of the cabinet walls does not fracture, the corner bracket will be forced outwardly of the corner interior. This force will be resisted by the shear strength of the glue transmitted thereto by interference between the projection of the solidified grid structure and the grooves.

Consequently, the corner brackets as described in the invention are most effective in maintaining cabinet rigidity when used at least in pairs, wherein each pair of corner brackets is secured to at least one common wall. Thus, upon the deformation of a cabinet, at least one of the two intersections will urge the corner bracket into a compressive state, the state which it is best designed to resist.

What has been described is a molded plastic corner bracket for use with conventional furniture glue for increasing the rigidity of cabinets. The brackets, to which conventional furniture glue does not generally adhere very well, forms a grid structure of solidified glue which is bonded to the cabinet and resists movement of the bracket parallel to the wall.

It is obvious that upon study by those skilled in the art, the disclosed invention may be altered or modified both in physical appearance and construction without departing from its inventive concept. Therefore, the scope of protection to be given this invention should not be limited by the embodiments described above, but should be determined by the essential descriptions thereof which appear in the appended claims.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. In combination with a cabinet having first and second parallel side walls and a top wall and bottom wall intersecting and secured to said side walls at substantially right angles, wherein each of said walls is fabricated of glue permeable material, structural members designed to be secured to the walls of two adjacent cabinet wall intersections for rigidly maintaining right angles at each of said Wall intersections, whereby upon deformation of said cabinet, at least one of said structural members is in a state of compression tending to move it in a direction parallel to one of said cabinet walls; each of said structural members comprising: integral first and second gluing surfaces fabricated of essentially glue nonpermeable material and intersecting at substantially a right angle; each of said gluing surfaces defining a plurality of glue receiving cavities and lands; and glue deposited between said gluing surfaces and the walls to which they are to be secured; said glue flowing into and at least partially filling said cavities and permeating said walls; said glue upon setting adhering to said walls and providing solid glue projections extending normally therefrom; fastening means maintaining said gluing surfaces in firm contact with their respective walls; said glue projections cooperating with the sides of said lands to resist movement of said structural member in directions parallel to said walls in the event said glue fails to adequately adhere to said nonpermeable gluing surfaces, thereby rigidly maintaining each of said cabinet walls perpendicular to its intersecting Wall.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said structural members is fabricated of polystyrene; said cavities comprising a plurality of longitudinal and transverse glue receiving grooves; said glue solidifying in said grooves and establishing a raised grid structure adhering to said cabinet walls; said grid structure interferingly cooperating with the sides of said lands, thereby inhibiting movements of said structural member in directions parallel to said walls.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein conventional furniture glue is used for securing said cabinet walls together and also for securing said structural members thereto; said structural members being fabricated of polystyrene to which said conventional furniture glue has limited adherence; and wherein said cavities comprise a plurality of substantially parallel glue receiving grooves extending longitudinally and transversely along said gluing surfaces; said grooves forming a mold for retaining said glue, which upon solidification establishes a grid structure protruding above the plane of said cabinet 5 6 wall; said lands having sides substantially perpendicular References Cited to said wall; and wherein said fastening means comprises a pair of screws extending through said structural mem- UNITED STATES PATENTS her into said cabinet wall; said grid structure interferingly 2,362,904 11/1944 Kramer 217-65 X cooperating with the sides of said lands to resist move- 5 2,636,835 4/1953 Boul are t all,

ment of said structural member in planes parallel to said walls. RAPHAEL H. SCHWARTZ, Primary Examiner. 

